Diesel Is Hannibal

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By Brian Linder

It looks like actor Vin Diesel will make transition from secret agent to renegade space traveler, and then to warrior general. According to today's Variety, Diesel is set to star in Revolution Studios' Hannibal biopic. In case you slept through that semester of World History, Hannibal was a Carthaginian general, regarded as one of the great military leaders of antiquity, who lead his troops in a sneak attack on Rome in the Second Punic War (218-201 BC).

The story for the film will be based on the fictional autobiography, Hannibal, by Ross Leckie, in which Hannibal tells his own story from boyhood to just before his death. Leckie's novel is based in fact, although he expands on many characters merely mentioned in historical source materials and flat out invents other parts of the story. But it's generally regarded as an entertaining read, and should provide plenty of fodder for an exciting screenplay.

Variety says that Revolution intends to get the project underway in a hurry, to catch up with a rival Hannibal project at Fox, which may star Denzel Washington. There's no writer on board yet, but the film's script will reportedly be written while Diesel is shooting the Pitch Black sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick. The studio hopes to have the film in production by early next year. Diesel will film the Hannibal biopic before he begins work on xXx2.